PlantPal Case Study

Project Overview

Design a mobile app that solves a real problem in a person’s day to day life.

Role and Responsibilities: UX Researcher / UX Designer

Duration: 3 weeks

Team: Sahand Hasani, Lauren Cotie, Ryan Hunt, and Julia Legge

Deliverables: Design Process (Research > Design > Iterations > Testing) & Mid Fidelity Prototype

Tools: Figma, Procreate, Photoshop CS5

Executive Summary

Our project aims to address the needs of plant owners who require assistance caring for their plants while away from home and seek opportunities to collaborate with others in their plant care journey. We aim to create a supportive environment that enhances the plant care experience.

The Problem and Solution

Plant owners often struggle to find reliable care for their plants when they’re away from home, while also lacking opportunities to share knowledge with other plant enthusiasts. Presently, there is a gap in the market for a solution addressing these combined needs.

By providing a platform to access plant services and exchange insights, we aim to cultivate a supportive environment where plant owners and their plants, can flourish.

User Research Phase

Both qualitative and quantitative research were conducted. The primary goal was to gain insight into the journey of a user regarding plant care and any potential pain points. This would help better identify important feature requirements of potential users.

We utilized online polls and surveys distributed across Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, and Snapchat to conduct extensive research - garnering 67 responses

  • More than half of users do not have someone to watch their plants.

  • More than half of users watch videos to learn about plants.

  • 75% of users have a substantial number of plants.

We conducted 6 user interviews with plant owner participants. Our objective was to identify pain points that users face, identify requirements, and how they currently care for their plants.

  • Users experience strong emotional connections to their plants and prioritize their care.

  • Users look for someone who is competent of taking care of their unique plants and who can understand the significance of these cherished plants during their absence.

  • Users demonstrate a culture of plant trading and propagation sharing. Indicating a strong sense of community and collaboration within the plant lover community.

Definition & Synthesize Phase

Faced with a large collection of insights, it was important to begin prioritizing in order to craft a strategic approach.

  • Understand key user pain points, wants and needs.

  • Define our user and understand their preferences.

  • Identify patterns within the data that can help us to create solutions.

Collected data from our user interviews was analyzed and synthesized into key findings.

This was achieved through the use of affinity mapping as shown.

Key findings highlighted from affinity map diagram

  • Need for reliable plant care services

  • Expressed interest in community engagement and collaboration

  • Desired qualities from professional help

  • Desire for knowledge and learning opportunities

Synthesis of our user research led to the creation of our user persona. This persona was considered when making design decisions. 


Martha Monstera

Age 33

I feel a sense of community when talking about and trading plants with people.

It is frustrating not knowing who to trust outside of family/friends.

I think learning and being knowledgeable about specific plants is a very valuable quality for plant sitters to have.


Says

“They(Plant Sitters) have to be knowledgeable, so if they notice aphids or disease or anything wrong with the plant, they can take care of it.”

Thinks

I think learning and being knowledgeable about specific plants is a very valuable quality for plant sitters to have.

Pains

It is frustrating not knowing who to trust outside of family/friends

Does

Watches videos to learn more about their plants

Feels

I feel a sense of community when talking about and trading plants with people

Gains

I need the ability to leave home without stressing about plants.

Ideation Phase

During this phase, we focused on generating creative solutions to address the identified user needs and challenges.

  • Conduct a competitor analysis

  • Storyboard

  • What If, I Like, I wish brainstorming method

We started researching the existing market tailored for plant care, and plant care taking apps. With only one of each available on the current market, we also searched similar pet sitting apps.

Takeaways from Competitor Analysis


  • Watering Can App - Can only register as a Plant sitter, or as someone who needs their plants taken care of, cannot do both - Liked the clean aesthetic overall.

  • Picture This - Enjoyed ‘Add plants to my Garden’ feature. Also had a weather feature where it would instruct you on how to water your plant depending on your location. 

  • Rover - Liked that pet sitters were backed by background checks and that profiles were verified. 

  • Wag - Some inconsistencies were found in the icons used but was straightforward and easy to use otherwise.

To help ideation, a storyboard was created. By illustrating these journeys, a deeper understanding of the user experience was demonstrated.

While illustrating this storyboard, it also began to spark some ideas on how the app would look and be used.

Illustration by me.


Using the “I like, I Wish, What if” method - this allowed us to spark creativity in the ideation process.

Some favorites from the I like, I wish, What if Method included the following.

  • Being able to document specific needs that your plants require

  • Wanting to find a way to share and exchange plant cuttings with other people

  • Feedback from plant sitters 

  • Inputting your location and get sent recommendations on adjusting your plant care routine to align with natural growth cycle of plants

  • Liking that background checks would be done on people that are coming to their home

We then used the Feature Prioritization Matrix to evaluate and prioritize the generated ideas based on their complexity and maximizing the value to users. 


Takeaways from Feature Prioritization Matrix


  • Find verified plant sitters who are reliable and able to care for your plants

  • Trade plants as payment and share cuttings with others

  • Connect with other plant lovers in your area and creating a community

  • Documenting specific needs that certain plants require

Prototype Phase

In the prototype phase, each team member created their own paper prototype based on the prioritized features and ideas.

Following the presentation of our clickable paper prototypes, we combined the most favorable aspects from each other's designs to develop our mid-fidelity prototype. We appreciated Julia's intuitive "Pay with Plants" user flow, my inclusion of the message board feature, Ryan's layout for the "Add a Plant" page, and Lauren's minimalist design.

Ensuring we would have a consistency, we established a style tile before starting on the mid fidelity prototype. To the right is our completed prototype

Testing Phase

For the testing phase, we conducted usability tests with five users to gather feedback on the prototype to ensure that our app flow makes sense to the average user and is intuitive to them. Hoping to learn areas of confusion and friction.

Results of User Testing

Although the five users who participated in the user testing successfully completed the tasks, we observed that a majority attempted to scroll on the homepage. Additionally, a moderate number of users expressed difficulty distinguishing between the feed and the comment section.


In response to this feedback, we implemented a seamless background to the comment pages to help users recognize that they are viewing the post itself. However, due to project constraints, we were unable to integrate an infinite scroll feature within the given timeline.

Conclusion

In hindsight, I wish we had additional time to iterate and enhance our project, particularly by integrating instructional videos on plant care. Considering this was the first time ever making an app - I understand that there is always room for improvement. With extended time, I would have liked to incorporate more typography and stylizing, while also including more interaction design elements to enrich the user experience.